1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to interpreter-type program executing apparatuses, control methods therefor, and storage media therefor which interpret and execute intermediate codes generated by a compiler.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional interpreter-type program executing apparatuses which interpret and execute intermediate codes generated by a compiler, an interpreter repeatedly interprets and executes intermediate codes statement by statement to execute the program. As an interpreter that performs this processing, there is known a byte-code interpreter which interprets and executes byte codes. This byte-code interpreter and byte codes attract special attention in a recent Internet age. This is because a program formed of byte codes downloaded from the Internet is independent of a platform and is executed in computers having various architectures just with a byte-code interpreter.
In conventional program executing apparatuses, however, when an instruction operand needs a data reference in a process in which an interpreter interprets and executes intermediate codes statement by statement, an executing speed is very slow since the data reference has to be analyzed and executed.
To reference data as fast as possible, a hash table for analyzing the data reference or a memory area for data cache can be provided. Either of these methods, however, increases the required memory capacity.